Gardners Art through the Ages A Global History

insight and emotionalism of Hellenistic statuary (FIGS. 5-80and

5-81). His Daviddiffers from those of Donatello and Verrocchio in

much the same way later Hellenistic statues departed from their

Classical predecessors (see Chapter 5). Michelangelo abandoned the

self-contained compositions of the 15th-century Davidstatues by

abruptly turning the hero’s head (FIG. 22-14) toward his gigantic ad-

versary. This David is compositionally and emotionally connected to

an unseen presence beyond the statue, a feature also of Hellenistic

sculpture (FIG. 5-85). As early as 1501, then, Michelangelo invested

his efforts in presenting towering, pent-up emotion rather than

calm, ideal beauty. He transferred his own doubts, frustrations, and

passions into the great figures he created or planned.

TOMB OF JULIUS IIThe formal references to classical antiq-

uity in Davidsurely appealed to Julius II, who associated himself with

the humanists and with Roman emperors. Thus, this sculpture and

the fame that accrued to Michelangelo on its completion called the

artist to the pope’s attention, leading shortly thereafter to major papal

commissions. The first project Julius II commissioned from Michel-

angelo was the pontiff ’s own tomb, to be placed in Old Saint Peter’s.

The original 1505 design called for a freestanding two-story struc-

ture with some 28 statues (FIGS. 22-15 and22-16). This colossal

monument would have given Michelangelo the latitude to sculpt

numerous human figures while providing Julius II with a grandiose

memorial that would associate the 16th-century pope with the first

pope, Peter himself. Shortly after Michelangelo began work on this

project, the pope, for unknown reasons, interrupted the commis-

sion, possibly because funds had to be diverted to the rebuilding of

Saint Peter’s. After Julius II’s death in 1513, Michelangelo reluctantly

reduced the scale of the project step-by-step until, in 1542, a final

contract specified a simple wall tomb with fewer than one-third of

the originally planned figures. Michelangelo completed the tomb in

High and Late Renaissance 591

22-15Michelangelo Buonarroti,Moses,from the tomb of Pope

Julius II, Rome, Italy, ca. 1513–1515. Marble, 7 8 –^12 high. San Pietro in

Vincoli, Rome.

Not since Hellenistic times had a sculptor captured as much pent-up

energy, both emotional and physical, in a seated statue as Michelangelo

did in the over-life-size Moseshe carved for Julius II’s tomb.

1 ft.

22-16Michelangelo Buonarroti,Bound Slave (Rebellious

Captive), from the tomb of Pope Julius II, Rome, Italy, ca. 1513–1516.

Marble, 7–^58 high. Louvre, Paris.

For Pope Julius II’s grandiose tomb, Michelangelo planned a series of

statues of captives or slaves in various attitudes of revolt and exhaus-

tion. This defiant figure exhibits a violent contrapposto.

1 ft.